Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain an unresolved scourge of humanity.
Some such diseases, such as the plague and Bartonellosis, are transmitted through vectors and are not amenable to barrier type protection. However, the best protection for all other known STDs remains the condom.
Condoms are currently constructed of primarily elastic artificial membranes applied to the penis. Most are made of latex, shipped rolled into a ring form and deployed by unrolling onto the penis. Considerable ingenuity is sometimes utilized in deploying these condoms in intimate settings. For this reason users have been very reluctant to adopt modifications. Many adhesive type modifications have been proposed, but they have failed to gain any acceptance. Most due to the fact that they are useless, rendering condoms into no more than a disposable foreign body to interfere with intercourse. The remaining ones have failed due to inconvenience of use.
Most modifications proposed by prior art are not only inconvenient, but impractical and in many instances dangerous. In any case, most proposed changes compromise condoms' function as a barrier type of protectant and contraceptive.
Nevertheless, improvement in condom technology is imperative. Condoms are a necessary evil at best and outright harmful in some situations. They are much less effective than the 93% contraceptive efficacy advertised. They are cynically promoted as effective against STDs, when in fact they are only reliably effective (if used perfectly) against one entity: syphilis.
Condoms work against syphilis because the causative organism, a spirochete known as Treponema Pallidum, is very fragile. In fact, T. Pallidum dies immediately once the bodily fluids carrying it dry out. Treponema are also relatively large in size. For this reason, any crude barrier that simply separates the non-infected party from the partner will serve as a protectant.
This is not the case with gonorrhea and Chlamydia. This is even less the case with viruses. In fact, condoms are completely useless for the prevention of the transmission of the herpes virus. Hepatitis B, hepatitis C and even HIV are only partially prevented with condoms.
All of the above is only assuming appropriate use. Breakage during use, combination with solvents and a wide range of creative sexual endeavors that sometimes strain belief invalidate any possible protective use of condoms.
Finally, none of the above have any relevance in the setting of omission of condom use. Condoms are uniformly detested. Women don't like it because they reduce the male's sexual ardor and males ostensibly dislike them because they “reduce sensation”. This is probably a fictitious, as condoms' greatest nuisance lies in the compression to which they subject the penis. Sufficient compression to maintain the condom on the penis invariably interferes with erection, both lessening its intensity and duration. Condoms therefore have very low rates of usage.
Condoms nevertheless are the only reasonable alternative to mass prevention of STDs and birth control. They are reasonably effective if used adequately for a limited set of clinical scenarios, they do prevent conception and are so inexpensive that third world economies can afford them for their public health needs. Significant improvement in the state of the art without significant increase in cost is likely to result in a momentous impact in the prevalence of STDs.
Lexicon
The condom of claim 1 is that cylindrical pliable membrane designed to be retained on the male sexual organ (penis, phallus) during sexual intercourse.
The apposed membrane applied to the inner surface of the condom of Claim 1 is a membrane that does not adhere to (or adheres only very weakly) to the adhesive on the inner surface of the condom, is intended only for the packaging and deployment of the condom and is discarded after deployment of said condom.
For the purposes of this patent, the PROXIMAL end of the condom of Claim 1 is defined as that end of the condom that would transmit the opening permitting application of the condom. This convention is in accordance with anatomical convention.
The DISTAL end of the condom shall therefore be defined as the reservoir tip, the valvular apparatus described in the separate but concurrent application, or whatever part of the condom that is applicable to the glans penis.
In contrast, the DISTAL end of the inner protective membrane approximated to the inner adhesive layer of the condom specified in Claim 1 shall be defined as the end that would approximate closest to the area next to the DISTAL aspect of the condom itself (specifically, to the reservoir tip of the condom). Note, this correspondence is not exact, as the inner adhesive of the condom of Claim 1 corresponding to the distal aspect of the glans penis is to remain exposed.
Accordingly, the PROXIMAL end of the inner protective layer would correspond to the PROXIMAL end of the condom of Claim 1 and is provided rolled up as described in the Claims.
(****Note that the above convention is based on the geometry PRIOR to deployment. The act of deployment will reverse the orientation of the inner membrane in such as manner as to deliver the DISTAL end past the PROXIMAL end, to base of the penis. Separation of the two membranes will thus initiate at their DISTAL ends and proceed towards the proximal end. The PROXIMAL ends of the two membranes will thus remain in contact until the very last moments prior to complete separation.)
STD—Sexually Transmitted Disease, a disease transmissible through the act of sexual intercourse.
The term target shall refer to the penis.
The term glans shall refer to glans penis, the terminal segment of the penis.